Sleeved boot

ABSTRACT

A BOOT HAVING A RELATIVELY STIFF UPPER TERMINATING IN A FOOT RECEIVING MOUTH OPENING AND FLEXIBLE TUBULAR SLEEVE HAVING ONE END SECURED ABOUT SAID MOUNT OPENING AND MOVABLE FROM A RETRACTED POSITION EMBRACING THE BOOT TO AN EXTENDED POSITION ABOVE THE BOOT AND A CLOSURE PREFER-   ABLY IN THE FORM OF A DRAWSTRING ON THE OTHER END OF THE SLEEVE.

Nov. 9, 1971 M. SHNURIWSKY SLEEVED BOOT Filed April 24, 1970 INVENTORMichael SHNURIWSKY ATTORNEY f United States Patent Oflice 3,618,232Patented Nov. 9, 1971 3,618,232 SLEEVED BOOT Michael Shnuriwsky, 54745th Ave., Ville La Salle, Quebec, Canada Filed Apr. 24, 1970, Ser. No.31,647 Claims priority, application Canada, Feb. 19, 1969,

75,372 Int. Cl. A43b 3/00 U.S. Cl. 361.5 11 Claims ABSTRACT OF THEDISCLOSURE A boot having a relatively stiff upper terminating in a footreceiving mouth opening and a flexible tubular sleeve having one endsecured about said mouth opening and movable from a retracted positionembracing the boot to an extended position above the boot and a closurepreferably in the form of a drawstring on the other end of the sleeve.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION (a) Field of the invention The presentinvention relates to a boot. More particularly, the present inventionrelates to a mukluk type boot with a relatively stiff ankle or legembracing portion having a flexible and retractable snow cuff connectedtheretol,

(b) Description of prior *art Generally, mukluks whether high, low ormedium cut, are pile-lined substantially to the top of the boot. Thispile lining results in a relatively inflexible upper that cannot beeasily deformed to intimately embrace the leg of the wearer. Laces areprovided on such boots, but normally these laces do not and are notintended to be tightened and distort the boot. As a result of thisstructure, the open mouth of these tnukluk type boots does not snuglyembrace the leg of the wearer and, therefore, does not prevent theingress of snow or the like down between the top of the boot and the legof the wearer. For this reason, mukluk type boots are generally not assatisfactory as some other types of boots for use in deep snow orsimilar conditions.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION It is the main object of the present invention toprovide a convertible snow cuff on a boot having a relatively stiffupper including a leg embracing section.

Broadly, the present invention relates to 'a boot having a stiff ankleembracing portion defining a mouth opening for receiving the foot of thewearer, a flexible sleeve, one end of said sleeve being securedcompletely about the mouth of said boot and the opposite end of saidsleeve having means to adjust the diameter of the sleeve to permit thesleeve to tightly embrace the leg of a wearer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS Further features, objects and advantageswill be evident from the following detailed description taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is an isometric view of the present invention showing theflexible sleeve in extended position;

FIG. 2 is a section along the line 22 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 1 but showing the sleeve in retractedposition embracing the top of the boot;

FIG. 4 is a section along the line 44 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a section similar to FIG. 4 but showing the sleeve connectedon the inside of the boot.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS As shown in the drawings, the bootis a mukluk type boot having an upper formed with a shank or an ankleand leg embracing portion 12 that may be extended to the desired heightto form either a low, high or intermedlate cut boot. These boots aremoccasin style having seams extending along the shank of the upper andover the toe portion and covered with a suitable binding as indicated at15. The boot is lined preferably with a heavy pile lining 14 (see FIGS.2, 3, 4, or 5) which renders the ankle and leg embracing portionrelatively stiff so that when the laces are tightened, the open end ormouth 18 of the boot normally will not be drawn to snugly embrace theleg of the wearer. Even if the laces 16 are tightened to cause the uppersection 12 to buckle, normally such buckling will not be uniform aboutthe periphery of the mouth of the boot but will result in one or morelarge folds which do not provide proper contact of the mouth 18 with theleg of the wearer. While such large folds will tend to reduce the amountof snow that can slide into the boot between the boot and the wearer, itstill requires improvement both from the point of view of stopping thesnow and the difficulty of tying the boot in this manner.

The present invention overcomes the above defects without detractingfrom the aesthetic appearance of the boot by providing a specific sleeveor cuff structure 20 which is secured in a special way about the mouthof the boot 10. This sleeve or cuff 20 may be decorated in any suitablemanner, for example with racing strips or with fur that may, forexample, be turned in toward the leg when the sleeve is in upwardlyextending position, or exposed when the sleeve is down over the boot, orthe same or different decorations may be provided on opposite sides ofthe sleeve.

To retain the aesthetic appearance of this type of boot and yet overcomethe above defects, it has been found that the sleeve or cuff 20 must besewn or otherwise secured to the top mouth opening 18 of the boot 10 ina manner such that the binding strip 22 will be exposed when the sleeveor cuff 20 is in its lowered position. In the embodiment of FIGS. 1 to 4inclusive, the sleeve is positioned between the binding strip 22 and theouter surface 24 of the boot 10 and is secured in position by means ofstiching 26.

It has been found that the height of this sleeve should not be less thanabout 1 inch to provide adequate length for tying about the leg of thewearer when in the up position, and should never exceed about 60% of theheight of the shank, the height of the shank being measured from theinside sole of the boot at the heel to the top of the mouth opening 18,if the required appearance is to be maintained.

It is also preferred to fabricate the sleeve or cuff 20 of theself-supporting material. By a self-supporting material is meant onethat has sufficient body to support itself in upright position above thetop of the boot and yet sufficiently flexible to be easily conformed tomatch with the leg of the wearer to prevent snow or other foreignmaterial from entering the boot. The preferred method for obtaining thisstrength characteristic of the sleeve is to impregnate the material fromwhich it is made with a suitable resin, preferably with a resin thatwill also enhance the water-proofness and snow-resistancecharacteristics of the material.

The sleeve 20 of FIGS. 1 to 4 is formed from a single piece of fabricfolded upon itself to form a double layer and secured together alongline 27 (see FIGS. 1 and 3) to form a tubular sleeve.

A pair of eyelets 28 are provided through one layer of the materialadjacent the folded free edge 29 of the sleeve and a drawstring 30 ispassed through one of the eyelets 28 around the sleeve 20 and outthrough the other of the eyelets 28 to form a drawstring adjacent thefree edge 29 of the sleeve. A line of stitching 32 parallel to thefolded free edge 29 of the sleeve 20 defines with the edge 29 a channelor passage 34 for the drawstring (see FIGS. 2, 4 and The edge 36 formedby the ends of the folded fabric is secured to the boot under thebinding 22 as described hereinabove. If desired, instead of a doublelayer sleeve, a single layer sleeve may be used. In the latter case, onelayer of the sleeve would terminate spaced from the folded free edge 29at a location slightly beyond the line of stitching 32 forming thechannel 34.

In operation, the sleeve is used as a storm cuff by extending the sleeveto its uppermost position as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 and drawing thedrawstring 30 to tighten the flexible sleeve 20 to snugly embrace theleg of the wearer and prevent snow or the like from sliding into the topof the boot. The drawstring may simply be tied in this position in theconventional way. When not in use, the sleeve 20 may be moved to itsretracted position as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 by sliding the sleeve downthe outside of the boot as illustrated. In this latter position thesleeve is out of the way to facilitate putting on or taking off the boot(if the sleeve were always extended, it would be more difiicult to puton and take off the boot). In FIGS. 3 and 4, the channel 34 forming aportion of the sleeve 20 is folded up to expose the eyelets 28 and thedrawstring 30. This folded up position of the free edge 29 isunnecessary but has been illustrated to show one arrangement of thesleeve when retracted.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 5, a single layered sleeve 20 hasbeen illustrated and the sleeve 20' has been secured on the inside ofthe boot adjacent the pile lining 14 rather than outside as was thesleeve 20. The sleeve 20' is secured to the boot by means of the bindingstrip 22 and the line of stitching 26 in the same manner as the sleeve20. The sleeve 20' has parts similar to the parts of sleeve 20 and thesesimilar parts have been indicated by corresponding reference numerals.In the arrangement of FIG. 5, the sleeve 20 may be drawn from the bootand used as a storm cuff or may be inserted into the boot as illustratedto a retracted hidden position.

The embodiment of FIGS. 1 to 4 is generally preferred to that of FIG. 5,since the FIG. 5 embodiment provides a ridge at the connection of thesleeve to the boot which may trap snow or the like that may easily fallinto the boot when the sleeve is moved from its snow cuff position toits retracted position.

In each of the embodiments, a drawstring has been shown as the closurefor the top of the sleeve when in extended position. Obviously, othertypes of closures may be used if desired, however, the drawstringprovides a simple yet economical and efiicient manner of drawing thesleeve into snug embracing position with the leg to prevent thepenetration of snow into the boot.

What is claimed is:

1. A boot comprising a stiff, not easily deformed upper terminating in afoot receiving mouth opening, a flexible tubular sleeve, means securingone axial end of said sleeve to said boot completely about said mouthopening and adjustable closure means adjacent the other axial end ofsaid sleeve, said sleeve being foldable upon itself from an extendedposition wherein said other end is spaced from said boot to a retractedposition wherein said other end contacts said upper below said mouthopening, said adjustable closure means being adjustable to close saidother end of said sleeve into snug contact with a leg of a wearer orwith said upper depending on the position of said sleeve.

2. A boot as defined in claim 1 wherein said mouth opening is partiallydefined by a binding strip and wherein said sleeve is connected to saidmouth opening in a manner to expose at least an upper part of saidbinding strip when said sleeve is in retracted position.

3. A boot as defined in claim 1 wherein said sleeve is self-supporting.

4. A boot as defined in claim 1 wherein said sleeve is longer than oneinch and is less than of the height of the shank of the boot in axiallength.

5. A boot as defined in claim 4 wherein said closure means is adrawstring.

6. A boot as defined in claim 2 wherein said sleeve is self-supporting.

7. A boot as defined in claim 6 wherein said sleeve is longer than oneinch and less than 60% of the height of the shank of said boot in axiallength.

8. A boot as defined in claim 7 wherein said closure means is adrawstring.

9. A boot as defined in claim 8 wherein said means securing comprisessaid binding strip overlying said mouth and said one end and stitchingthrough said binding strip said sleeve and said upper.

10. A boot as defined in claim 8 wherein said sleeve is formed from twoplys and is coated with a water resistant stiffening resin.

11. A boot as defined in claim 8 wherein said means securing includessaid binding strip which overlies said mouth and said one end andstitching through said binding strip, said sleeve and said upper andwherein said sleeve is secured to the outer surface of said boot and isformed from material coated with a water resistant stiffening resin.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,473,099 6/1949 Hatch 36-11,090,223 3/1914 McNeer 361.5 452,158 5/1891 Beige. et al 361.5 X

PATRICK D. LAWSON, Primary Examiner UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICECERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No 3 618 2332 Dated November 9 l9'7lInvent0r(s) Michael Shnuriwsky It is certified that error appears in theabove-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are herebycorrected as shown below:

The priority date should read February 19, 1970 Signed and sealed this17th day of October 1972.

( SEAL) Attest:

EDWARD M..FLETGHER,JR. ROBERT GOT'ISCHALK Attesting Officer Commissionerof Patents POWSO (10439) USCOMM-DC 60376 P69 U S EDVEQHMENT PRINTiNGUFFICE 9G9 0355'33

